We live in SC in an area that has been dealing with severe drought conditions for 2 years now. Our pastures dry up pretty bad in the summer and the horses don't have much to graze so we have to give hay all year round. Because the grass dries up, we have more weeds. Last year our very healthy TB mare which we have had for 4 years started to have this weird flexion in the back legs. To make a long story short, she was diagnosed with stringhalt. I took her to Tryon Equine in NC. She spent 3 weeks there as she was being treated for an eye ulcer. The stringhalt got worse there where she had difficulty walking forwad and was totally unable to back up. I have done alot of research and spoken to everyone I can find, veterinay hospitals, toxicologist, herbalist, other horse owners, the extension agencies. I was told that there are 2 types of stringhalt. One just happens and its a neurological disorder that can be confused with EPM or shivers. The other has the same symptoms but is caused by a toxin. I found out that some horses just start to eat too many dandelions when there is nothing else for them to eat in a field. Once they have aquired a taste for it , they eat it all the time.
I had 4 horses in one field, one came down with the stringhalt. One vet said that it was impossible for the dandelions to cause this becuase dandelions are everywhere in every field and all horses eat it. I was recommend to do surgery on our TB before leaving the hospital where a tendon is severed. She has the most beautiful gaits and I wanted to see if it was really a toxin or a neurological disorder. Well, I got the mare off the dandellions and within 3 months it started to clear up and she is back 100%.
Nine months ago I rescued another TB mare, I had her in a dry lot with no lameness. Three weeks ago I put her in a larger field that had the dandellions. This week she started with the stringhalt. I am putting her back in the dry lot today and I am spraying again. This tells me that it is the weeds as this mare got sick after she ate the weeds for 3 weeks. You might have one horse in the herd to get it, the rest might be fine. I think that the reason is that one horse probably eats more weeds. My advice is, check your pastures, get rid of the weeds, if your horse has stringhalt, GET THE HORSE OFF THE WEEDS, wait a few months and see if it clears up before you go doing surgery. Stringhalt is a rare condition but I think that due to the climate change in our region, we are seeing more of it. It has been frustrating because at this time none of the equine hospitals are interested in studying the problem. Unfortunately, there is only speculations, no medication, not a whole lot of help out there.